Anomalous energy cascades in dense granular materials yielding under simple shear deformations

Abstract

By using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of dense granular particles in two dimensions, we study turbulent-like structures of their non-affine velocities under simple shear deformations. We find that the spectrum of non-affine velocities, introduced as an analog of the energy spectrum for turbulent flows, exhibits the power-law decay if the system is yielding in a quasi-static regime, where large-scale collective motions and inelastic interactions of granular particles are crucial for the anomalous cascade of kinetic energy. Based on hydrodynamic equations of dense granular materials, which include both kinetic and contact contributions in constitutive relations, we derive a theoretical expression for the spectrum, where a good agreement between the result of MD simulations and theoretical prediction is established over a wide range of length scales.